The votes have been counted, and the winner is…… K.S. Chambersburg, IL

Davey’s story touched many of you, and we applaud him for the level of involvement he has taken – not only with his own children, but also for the gift of fatherhood he has given his adopted twins.

Here is his story:

I would like to submit my husband, Davey, as the World’s Best Father. He was a good father the first time around. He is a great one the second time around. Let me explain. We are the biological parents of a grown daughter and son. And Grandma and Grandpa to one wonderful grandson, with another grandbaby on the way.

We are also the parents/custodians of a set of twins, age 8 1/2. They have lived with us for the last 6 1/2 years. They come from a family with a lot of problems. Their parents separated when they were 6 months old and both parents had problems with drugs and alcohol. I was/am a friend of their mother’s and we started out as babysitters, even though they have known me as “Grandma” since before they were born. They have always been special to us. The time came when their mother realized that she couldn’t take care of them, their father didn’t want to. In fact he claims they are not his, although they look just like their older sister who is his. Anyway, they came to live with us on a fulltime basis when they were 23 months old. My husband has been the only real father they have ever known. He didn’t ask to be a father again. I just kind of told him that they were going to be staying with us. They are legally ours now and he couldn’t be a better father to them. They both have some issues that we deal with on a daily basis. He just takes it all in stride. He is much more involved with these two than he was with our first two because they need him more, and so do I.

Thank you to all those who took the time to enter the competition, and to vote. We loved reading all your inspiring stories.

Congratulations to our winner K.S. Chambersburg and her husband Davey.

We had an incredible response to our Best Daddy competition. So many wonderful fathers out there, whose families love and appreciate all the effort and love they share with them.

We have selected 3 runners up, and their stories can be read below.

1. I am a single mother, who raised two of the finest young men alive. Both are the proud fathers of 2 yo babies. Both of my sons work 3-4 jobs to provide for their families (each of them are policeman , a very dangerous job, and also work as a paramedic-deputy coroner and the other works with special needs adults. They are so completely unselfish and loving . They work such diligent hours, so their wives can stay home. Sleep deprived and exhausted. Very dedicated sons, fathers, and husbands. May god bless them both and keep them safe. One is named Pierre and my second son is Bryan.

J.D., Ligonier,PA

2. My husband of 20 years is the best dad and grandpa in the world….he is completely deaf (I am hearing) however he roofs for Gates Roofing every year and he plows snow for Bill Tysman trucking every winter to support our family. Most people turn their nose up at people with a disability, however they are the same as the rest of us – and can do the same jobs and function as a loving person to their children and grandchildren just as well. I AM PROUD TO BE MARRIED TO A DEAF MAN CUZ HIS HIS HEART IS TRUE 100%. For me and our children / grandkids What a god sent man he is to our family, we are definitely blessed. God bless everyone.

T.B., Holland, MI

3. I would like to submit my husband, Davey, as the World’s Best Father. He was a good father the first time around. He is a great one the second time around. Let me explain. We are the biological parents of a grown daughter and son. And Grandma and Grandpa to one wonderful grandson, with another grandbaby on the way.

We are also the parents/custodians of a set of twins, age 8 1/2. They have lived with us for the last 6 1/2 years. They come from a family with a lot of problems. Their parents separated when they were 6 months old and both parents had problems with drugs and alcohol. I was/am a friend of their mother’s and we started out as babysitters, even though they have known me as “Grandma” since before they were born. They have always been special to us. The time came when their mother realized that she couldn’t take care of them, their father didn’t want to. In fact he claims they are not his, although they look just like their older sister who is his. Anyway, they came to live with us on a fulltime basis when they were 23 months old. My husband has been the only real father they have ever known. He didn’t ask to be a father again. I just kind of told him that they were going to be staying with us. They are legally ours now and he couldn’t be a better father to them. They both have some issues that we deal with on a daily basis. He just takes it all in stride. He is much more involved with these two than he was with our first two because they need him more, and so do I.

K.S., Chambersburg, IL

Please visit our blog post: Best Daddy Competition Winner to find out the results!

Between 2001 to 2011, the light of 6,000 American citizens – ages 0 to 5 years – was snuffed out by their own parents.

Source: FBI, Supplementary Homicide Reports http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/homicide/tables/kidstab.cfm 1/

Last Sunday we united as a nation to rightfully honor each 9/11 victim by name and raise our voices to declare “We will not live in fear.”

For those 6,000 babies who lived and died in fear ~ for those who still do ~ on what day will our nation unite to insist “Never again will even one of our own children live in fear?”

Taking care of our kids is the foundation of taking care of our Country.

What greater tribute to those who died on 9/11 than to invest in protecting, nurturing, and strengthening our nation’s foundation ~ our 80 million children who are our future, and those who raise them.

Leaving our children to chance  ~ The Ground Zero of social injustice.

The America ’s Angel Campaign ~ Raising the Bar on Raising America.

It’s what your children want.  Get Involved.

We’ve all heard these comments about infants and toddlers and have probably made them ourselves. So, that begs the question: at what age do babies morph into little people? It’s admittedly hard to believe that a tiny newborn is a fully aware, whole person. Could a brand new baby, only able to communicate by crying and eye contact, be as “present” as you or I? The answer is yes, and new research proves it.

Then why does infant specialist Magda Gerber’s advice to welcome a newborn with the respect we would give an “honored guest” still sound a little bizarre to most of us? Why is it that even if we believe infants are whole people, we don’t follow Magda’s direction to tell babies each and every thing we will do with their tiny bodies before doing it (“I’m going to pick you up now”)?

For one, perceiving the conscious person from the beginning is inconvenient. Caring for an infant’s physical needs is difficult and exhausting enough without having to consider his emotional and interpersonal ones, too. It’s easier to believe that an infant can’t feel ignored or insignificant while we’re focused on our computer screen, or engaged in a conversation with a friend while he is breastfeeding. We don’t want to waste our breath speaking to someone for whom it might seem to make no difference. This isn’t selfish. It’s human, especially since we feel taxed and overextended already. And let’s face it, believing our baby is ready to truly engage in a relationship with us before he can even smile takes a giant leap of faith. It makes sense to postpone that perception.

But the truth is, infants are ready to engage with us person to person long before they can respond, eagerly waiting for our relationship to begin. In fact, since we are our infant’s life, he or she can’t really enter the world in a meaningful way without our invitation to participate, our inclusion.

Does it really matter if we don’t acknowledge our babies as full-fledged people from the beginning? Consider this…

Formative Beginnings

Dr Kevin Nugent, a Boston-based psychologist and newborn infant specialist who has developed a system of “decoding” newborn babies’ behavior notes, “By the time your baby speaks his first word, a lot of water has gone under the bridge. The possibilities for relationship-building are still there of course, but it is in the first few months that the most formative part of the relationship is consolidated.” (Read more about Dr. Nugent and his fascinating new book, Your Baby Is Speaking To You: A Visual Guide to the Amazing Behaviors of Your Newborn and Growing Baby here at Lisa Sunbury’s site Regarding Baby)

Image of the Child

Loris Malaguzzi, the founder of the Reggio Emilia approach, explains in a recent edition of the Childcare Exchange, “There are hundreds of different images of the child. Each one of you has inside yourself an image of the child that directs you as you begin to relate to a child. This theory within you pushes you to behave in certain ways…”

In other words, the way we view our newborn baby affects the way we relate to her. We can alter our original image of a child once she is smiling, walking, talking, reading, going to school, driving a car, but it’s harder to shift gears once the patterns of interaction between us have been set.

Acting ‘as if’ and self-fulfilling prophecies

Preverbal children are ripe for our projections. So I recommend rather than relying on our fallback instinct that “seeing is believing”, believe first and then see. Since this will be one of the most precious and profound relationships we’ll ever have, it’s certainly worth the leap.

Then, once we begin acting as if our babies are sentient, capable beings, they can show us the truth…even before their smile.

Janet Lansbury

AMERICA’S ANGEL Adviser

www.janetlansbury.com

You care so much for your kids. But, as you read today’s headlines, do you get that sinking feeling that their future may not be what you were expecting? Are you a bit fearful that, just as they are walking into their future, their country teeters on the brink of bankruptcy?  Maybe you, like most of us, are hanging onto the hope that, with some miracle, this is all just going to turn around, and everything will get back to “normal.”  I mean, this is America, right?

FYI: Unlike other 1st world nations, our politicians and pundits consider the well-being of our children to be a “soft issue.” National defense, the economy, our escalating health care budgets, crime? Well, those are the really important “hard issues.”

I experienced this reality in March, 2001, when I was invited to Washington D.C. by a member of Congress to speak to our national leadership about children, families, and the growing social concerns that were trending our children’s futures towards disaster.  That presentation, scheduled for the last week of August, 2001, was canceled “Due to lack of interest… No one in Washington is talking about children and families these days.”

Two weeks later, we all woke to the horror of 9/11.

Any hope that our leaders would reconsider the folly of leaving our children to chance died in the dustof the Twin Towers.

In 2001, as ignored as our “soft” issues were, who could have imagined our “Band Aid” budget to pay for them would grow so huge that in 2011 we would cut days off of your kids’ school year, overcrowd their classrooms, cancel athletics, drama and music, school nurses, counselors, librarians, and special education programs. While every middle and high school campus confronts drugs, knifes, and guns hidden in backpacks and jean pockets, school police are given their pink slips. We release inmates into our communities, then shred our social safety net…. you know, the services that protect your kids and communities…. with first responders now a “take a number” option.

“Experts” blame our escalating budget meltdown on the crisis in the housing market; others blame it on the crisis in the middle east.

Research and common sense blame it on the crisis in our homes.

Consider this.

In the last ten years:

Ø      Violent crime by our children has quadrupled

Ø      Suicide for children ages 10 to 14 has tripled

Ø      Aggravated assault by our teens has jumped 64%

Ø      Serious mental health services for children has tripled

Ø       400 of our children have been murdered by their classmates

Ø       STDs  for 15-24 year olds have increased 28%

Ø      1 in 3 adolescent and teen girls become single mothers

Ø      Our educational rankings rank in the bottom of the civilized world

Ø       Every 9 seconds a student drops out of school

Ø       Organized gangs have increased 28% & now operate in 250 of our cities

Ø       Adolescent substance abuse is now America’s #1 public health problem

Perhaps, as our children are checking out, it’s time we adults check in on

the HARD FACTS of our soft issues.

You decide:

A decade of the War Abroad:     $1 Trillion *            Hard issue?

A year of the War at Home:      $1 Trillion + **       Soft issue?

We have a choice:

1. Continue to raise fees, taxes, and our debt ceiling – Nonsense

OR

2. Raise our children well – Common Sense

Remember that miracle you are hoping for? It’s called conscious parenting.

The AMERICA’S ANGEL Campaign is a citizen’s call to make conscious parenting our national norm, because we are only as ethical, compassionate, and hopeful as the children we raise.

Prevention starts with Parents. And, with 4000 newborns every day, the time for prevention starts now!

If your concerns are growing, your hope fading, if your budget is breaking, with the future of your children on the line, if you’re ready to take action, then add your voice to ours!

The AMERICA’S ANGEL Campaign ~ Raising the Bar on Raising America

Our children, above all.

Morgan

Morgan Rose, M.S.

Founder / Executive Director

________________________________________________________________

Here are actions you can take today to create the change your children can believe in.

• Be the example of a joy-based family http://www.americasangel.org/research/play/
• Meet the developmental need of your kids for PLAY  http://www.americasangel.org/research/developmental-stages/erikson-developmental-stages/ http://www.americasangel.org/research/play
• Share the AMERICA’S ANGEL mission, website and face book page with your friends, family, colleagues, PTA, and networks. http://www.americasangel.org http://facebook.com/americasangel
• Organize a local community chapter of the America’s Angel Campaign.  We’ll help you! Email outreach@americasangel.org
• Sign up for the Campaign newsletter on the site homepage http://www.americasangel.org
• Help us help you: DONATE…. because it takes more than wings to support this ANGEL https://npo.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=1002291#
• Tell Washington how to really fix the deficit.    http://www.americasangel.org/call-to-action/wake-up-washington/
• Put the “I raise America’s Future and I Vote” decal on your car window

Contact the Campaign’s public relations office pr@americasangel.org if you have contacts to:

Conscious celebrity parents

National organizations aligned with this mission

Corporations interested in cause-marketing the well-being of America’s children.

________________________________________________________________

• Fear-based families fuel your rising taxes for city, county, state, and federal juvenile and adult criminal justice systems, child protective services, foster care agencies, special educational programs and services, epidemics of child abuse, pornography, sexual exploitation, cyber attacks, white collar crime, identity theft, gang violence, school violence, community violence, drug addictions, and family violence. We pay for the hospitalizations and physical and mental health care resulting from all of the above.  Your tax dollars pay for the escalating costs and recycling issues of pregnant teens, premature infants, birth defects, mothers on meth, sexually transmitted diseases, alcohol and drug addictions, drunk driving, road rage, suicide, poverty, homelessness, mental disorders, school drop outs, etc.
• Every time we incarcerate a person, you and I assume the role of “adoptive parent,” for we are responsible to pay for their housing, food, medical care, psychiatric care, clothing, educational opportunities, and protection within the confines of prison walls.

• **  Source Samplings: Costs of the War at Home

* War Abroad:

Source Sampling

http://www.defense.gov

CIA budget unavailable to the general public

**  War at Home:

Source Sampling of relevant Federal Budgets:

Note: A comprehensive, but incalcuable accounting would include the human,

economic, social, patriotic, and lost potential and promise of our children and future.

http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov

http://www.fbi.gov/news/testimony/the-fbi-budget-for-fiscal-year-2011

http://www.justice.gov/jmd/2011factsheets/

http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/policy/12budget/fy12Highlight.pdf

http://dhhs.gov/asfr/ob/docbudget

http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/policymakers/PDF/Overview_FedFundingStreams.pdf

http://www.hhs.gov/ash/oah/assistance/index.html.

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/fysb/content/programs/tpp.htm

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/fysb/content/programs/tpp.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/TeenPregnancy/PreventTeenPreg.htm

www.hhs.gov/ash/oah/prevention/grantees/research_2010_projects.html

http://www.hhs.gov/ash/oah/prevention/grantees/models_2010_programs.html

http://www.chcf.org/~/media/Files/PDF/H/PDF%20HealthCareCosts10.pdf

www.hhs.gov/asfr/ob/docbudget/2011budgetinbrief.pdf

www.hhs.gov/about/hhsbudget.html

Research-based evidence demonstrating the causal factor of the War at Home to our unsustainable, escalating US Health Care Budget:

Health care costs have been rising for several years. Expenditures in the United States on health care surpassed $2.3 trillion in 2008, more than three times the $714 billion spent in 1990, and over eight times the $253 billion spent in 1980. Stemming this growth has become a major policy priority, as the government, employers, and consumers increasingly struggle to keep up with health care costs. [1] http://www.marketingcharts.com/direct/us-healthcare-costs-approach-3t-16763

From the findings of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study it is estimated that approximately 60% of US adult disease pandemics result from the compromised immune systems developed from fear-based experiences in childhood.

http://www.acestudy.org

http://www.cdc.gov/ace/index.htm

The AMERICA’S ANGEL Campaign ~ Raising the Bar on Raising America

It’s what your children want.  Get Involved!

A quote from her book, Secrets of the Teenage Brain, was posted on our facebook page a couple of days ago:

“Adolescence is a time of startling growth and streamlining in the brain, enabling teens to think abstractly, speak expressively, and move gracefully. During the teenage years they learn how to balance and manage their emotions.”

Our fans responded. One woman spoke of her teenage son: “My son is 19. So unhappy and so sad…..very depressed If any one knows a good book for him to read please he needs help. He was seeing [a counselor]. To me it didn’t work. I think [it] is more than that. He has no friends. He doesn’t leave the house. Sometimes I have to make him go out. He’s losing a lot of weight. Ugh! I don’t know what else to do. I was thinking getting him some books – but what books?? Help!”

Dr Feinstein has taken the time to respond. For all parents of teenagers, whether depressed or not, this is great advice:

“In general, it is normal for teens to have a more depressed spirit than adults. However, from what you describe your son is suffering from a deeper depression, one that should be taken very seriously. It’s clear from your posts that you care deeply for your son and are searching for ways to help him. Someone recommended taking him to a physician to rule out any physical concerns – great idea. Following the physician, an appointment with a counselor that works with teens is in order, hopefully you can find a competent therapist in your community. A combination of anti-depressant medication and therapy are very effective.

To give a bit of background on the connection between depression and adolescence, depression is highly correlated with puberty. Teenagers have low levels of serotonin, a calming neurotransmitter that counters the emotional amygdala. Therefore, they are more likely to feel agitated. Additionally, once areas of the brain associated with depression are activated they become very influential and make it difficult for the person to not focus on negative thoughts; they play them over and over in their mind.

Someone else mentioned balance of emotion. During the teenage years we see high levels of emotion, much of this has to do what is going on in their brains. For instance, teenagers rely on the emotional part of their brain, the amygdala, while adults rely on the frontal lobes, the area of the brain associated with decision making and problem solving. Therefore, it is no wonder that we see more verbal and physical aggression, moodiness, and tears from teens than from adults. This is a description of only one of the elements in the teen brain that puts them at risk for high emotion.”

Thank you Dr Feinstein, for the excellent information.

We also have a page, entitled Teenager’s Plea, which gets inside the mind of a teenager to help parents understand their needs.

AMERICA’S ANGEL welcomes your comments, questions or concerns.

It’s not about early childhood education, as important as that is. It’s not about poverty, as destructive as that is. It’s not about gun control, the right to life, who marries who, it’s not even about fixing our schools, as obvious as that is. And, oh my, it’s not about politics.

4 decades of research into the young brain leave no doubt it’s about parents showing up to parent. It’s about parents nurturing that innocent child from the first breath of life.

It’s about the magic of laughter and lullabies. It’s about how love builds the baby brain. It’s about our human desperation to bond with our mother’s eyes. It’s about parents’ nurturing with peace, joy, patience that vulnerable, amazing child brain into its full potential. It’s about what kind of people we are raising.

First, foremost, and forever it’s about America ’s parents raising ethical, compassionate and hopeful children.

This is what the AMERICA ’S ANGEL Campaign stands for: Nation building.

The intention of this Campaign is not to rearrange deck chairs, but to save the ship.

If you agree, step up, speak out, get involved because it’s the future of your kids on the line.

Take these steps if you are ready to Get Involved:

• Share the mission, website and facebook page with your friends, family, colleagues and networks
• Sign up for the Campaign newsletter (on the homepage)
• Help us help you: DONATE…. because it takes more than wings to support this ANGEL
• Contact pr@americasangel.org if you have contacts to conscious celebrity parents, national organizations aligned with this mission, or corporations interested in cause-marketing the well-being of America’s children.
• Let your wild child play

And remember laughter and lullabies are free!

The AMERICA’S ANGEL Campaign proudly welcomes Dr. Kelly Bost to the Angel Advisory Board

Kelly Bost, Ph.D, is an Associate Professor for Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Illinois.

Dr. Bost’s Research Interest focuses on: parent-child interactions; children’s peer relationships; children’s social networks and social competence; and parent-child narrative styles.

Her research looks at how children develop behaviors based on their relationships, specifically how children’s experiences within their families relate to their beliefs about relationships throughout their lives; how children develop coping strategies within social groups; and interaction among children in their peer groups.

We are thrilled to have Dr Kelly Bost on our Advisory Board.

Please find more information on Kelly here:

http://www.hcd.uiuc.edu/people/faculty/bost_kelly/profile.html

The AMERICA’S ANGEL Campaign is honored to announce Dr Regalina “Reggie” Melrose as a new member of our prestigious Advisory Board.

You will soon see her name and bio on our Advisory Board page!

Dr Melrose is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and credentialed school psychologist. She is the author of the ground-breaking books, You Can Heal Your Child (Bush Street Press, 2009) and Why Students Underachieve (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006). She is a sought-after international speaker in the fields of neuroscience and childhood stress and trauma, and maintains a successful private practice as a certified trauma healing specialist for children, adolescents, and adults.

You can access her articles and videos here : http://drmelrose.com/

When you sign up for the AMERICA’S ANGEL “Get Involved” Newsletter, you will receive access to an exclusive article by Michelle Winner, entitled: How Kids Learn Social Skills.

The heart of Michelle’s work is developing practical strategies that can be easily used by parents, educators and service providers, to teach the Social Thinking required for the development of real social skills.

Her work is being applied not only to persons with higher-functioning autism and related disabilities, but also more broadly to students in mainstream classrooms and to adults in vocational and professional settings in the U.S. and abroad.

Michelle has written several books on social cognitive deficits and Social Thinking, and has released training videos/DVDs for educators and parents.

Please visit her website: www.socialthinking.com